Features Of Growing Brussels Sprouts

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Agrotechnology Brassica oleracea L

Brussels sprouts are most often familiar to us from the sets of frozen vegetables sold in stores, but few people today grow it on their garden plot. However, this was not always the case.

It is worth remembering, for example, the famous Pozhansk cutlets - in Russia they were served with potatoes, peas, cauliflower or Brussels sprouts. Those who have been to England, Belgium or Germany should have remembered the numerous vegetable side dishes, which include Brussels sprouts.

What's more, many Britons use small heads of Brussels sprouts even for their traditional pudding. Although, probably, it is best prepared in Belgium, where huge plantations of this unusual cabbage, which is especially popular there, have long been located in the vicinity of Brussels.

And it is no coincidence, since it has high nutritional value. For example, broth cooked from Brussels sprouts is nutritionally comparable to chicken broth, and the cats themselves have such a pleasant sweetish taste that they will decorate many soups and side dishes served with meat and fish dishes. Moreover, they are very useful, and according to this indicator, Brussels sprouts can safely claim first place in the ranking among cabbages.

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Not only tasty, but also healthy

Brussels sprouts contain almost all vitamins and are the champion among cabbages in terms of the amount of vitamins C and B9, for example, vitamin C in it is three times more than in ordinary white cabbage, and it does not break down even during prolonged storage and processing. This exotic cabbage has a lot of various minerals (especially potassium, calcium, phosphorus, iron and magnesium) and a high content of highly digestible protein, which is not inferior in quality to meat and milk proteins, which is very rare for plants.

Therefore, Brussels sprouts should be included in the diet of any person, but it will be especially useful for people suffering from cardiovascular diseases, patients with diabetes mellitus, recovering from serious illnesses, and also for children.

In addition, Brussels sprouts juice enhances the function of the pancreas (especially when combined with juices from carrots, lettuce and green beans), so it can be very beneficial for people with problems with this organ.

But the most important advantage of Brussels sprouts was revealed by scientists from Washington University - it turns out that some substances contained in especially favorable proportions (indoles, folates and phytonutrites) can prevent the development of certain types of cancer, primarily breast, uterus, and lung cancers. In their reports, the scientists even cited promising statistics - the risk of cancer in people who regularly eat Brussels sprouts is 20% less than those who do not.

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About preferences for Brussels sprouts

In comparison with other cabbage cabbage, Brussels sprouts are more demanding on growing conditions, and without taking into account its following preferences (some of which are inherent in all cabbage), the harvest cannot be expected.

1. It is cold-hardy enough and tolerates frosts down to -7 ° C (not all varieties), but does not like piercing winds, therefore it is better to choose a site protected from the wind for growing it.

2. Extremely photophilous - at the slightest shading it stops growing and refuses to tie cocks.

3. Very hygrophilous, although it tolerates a lack of moisture better than other cabbage plants, since it forms a more powerful root system, but nevertheless significantly reduces the yield.

4. This cabbage is incredibly demanding on the fertility of the soil - it develops poorly on poor soils and later sets the coots, and more often does not tie them at all. However, it is categorically impossible to apply fresh manure under it (even on poor soils) (it must be replaced with compost or semi-rotted manure), since fresh manure delays the growing process, prevents the setting of motes, and if they are tied, they are loose and tasteless.

5. Does not tolerate acidic soils, on which the keel instantly falls ill and dies.

Mysteries of agricultural technology of Brussels sprouts

Growing seedlings. Brussels sprouts are a very late-ripening culture and develops extremely slowly, forming a harvest 130-150 days or more after germination. Therefore, you cannot do without seedlings.

The technology for growing seedlings can be different - it can be grown in cassettes, it is possible in sawdust, followed by growing in a greenhouse. True, this is possible only on the condition that the greenhouses are powered by biofuel, since it will need to be transplanted into the greenhouse for growing it no later than April 20. In any case, the seeds are sown early enough - about 1-2 decades of March.

Planting seedlings in open ground. At about 1-2 decades of May, seedlings of Brussels sprouts should be transplanted from a greenhouse or cassettes into open ground - at the time of planting, its age should be about 60 days. This should be done in cloudy weather or in the late afternoon.

First, it is required to prepare the planting areas - to level the ridges (on which the compost was previously applied at the rate of at least a bucket for the plant) and make large holes, because the seedlings are already large enough. The holes are placed so that one plant is at least 70 cm apart from another. In connection with such a significant distance, seedlings of Brussels sprouts should not be planted, alternating with other types of cabbage - it is better to plant along the cabbage ridge in one row or even set aside a separate site.

Add two large handfuls of ash, a handful of stale sawdust, half a handful of Kemira-type complex fertilizer, half a handful of superphosphate, and a handful of Giant Vegetable fertilizer to the holes. The contents of the well must be thoroughly mixed.

Each plant is set in a prepared hole, carefully spreading the root system if it was dug out of the greenhouse. Indeed, with cassette technology, the plant is placed in the hole directly in the cassette, and the roots do not need to be straightened. When planting, it is slightly deepened.

After planting, it is required to pour 1 liter of ordinary water under each bush and preferably 1 glass of a solution of biological products diluted in the usual way (100 g of risoplan and 200 g of black yeast per 1 bucket). After watering, the soil around the plants should be slightly loosened, sprinkled with stale sawdust for better air exchange and moisture retention, and the ridges with the planted cabbage should be closed with a thin covering material that will save both cabbage pests and excessive sun at the time of plant survival. This will also reduce the amount of watering. In this case, it will be enough to water the planted plants in cloudy weather once a week, and in sunny weather - twice directly through the covering material.

After a week, open the covering material and water each cabbage plant with a preparation (for example, colloidal sulfur) used to prevent the appearance of keels (2-3 glasses of solution under the plant).

Watering, hilling, mulching and feeding. Watering Brussels sprouts (like any other cabbage) should be abundant and timely, remembering that a lack of moisture automatically leads to loss of yield.

Hilling is required only at the very beginning of the growing season, and then you can limit yourself to loosening, since this cabbage hardly forms adventitious roots.

Mulching cabbage is not included in the list of traditional recommendations of agronomists, but it significantly increases the yield (which is important for low-yielding Brussels sprouts) and significantly reduces the complexity of care.

Therefore, it is advisable, three weeks after planting the seedlings in open ground, to temporarily remove the covering material, weed out the weeds, loosen the soil and slightly poke the plants (more likely for stability). And then cover the entire space around the plants with a layer of semi-rotten manure of about 5 cm, and lightly sprinkle it on top with stale sawdust. After that, you need to cover the cabbage plantation again with covering material. Such an operation will increase the fertility of the soil, and will relieve you of the tedious regular loosening.

After another two weeks, the covering material will have to be removed completely, loosened and weeded the cabbage and feed it with a mullein solution and sprinkle a handful of complex fertilizer under each plant. If slugs get overwhelmed, then after this procedure it is worth immediately spraying a thin layer of lime onto the entire soil space and the cabbage itself.

Then every two weeks it is necessary to carry out top dressing with balanced complex fertilizers, for example, Kemira. If the cocks are not tied, then the dose of phosphorus-potassium fertilizers in the top dressing should be increased.

Timely pinching of the stem and removal of bad cocks. Unlike other types of cabbage, in Brussels sprouts, the apical bud is necessarily pinched (above the topmost cossack).

This operation is carried out 30-40 days before the end of the growing season and is needed to limit the growth of the stem and get larger cocks. For example, when planting in early March, pinch at the end of July, but this is a very approximate guideline, since everything depends on the intensity of the development of cabbage and the characteristics of a particular variety.

The best reference point is the moment when the plant has reached 80-100 cm, the growth of the stem has slowed down, a small (still loose cossus) has formed in the axil of each leaf, and the cobs in the lower third of the stem have formed normally. As a rule, after the pinching, they begin to carry out selective cleaning of the nodules as they grow and thicken - this will also stimulate the further growth of nodules in the axils of the overlying leaves.

It should be borne in mind that late pinching is useless, and early pinching can lead to overgrowth of coots (one or several new tops may form on the stem, and the plant will spend all its energy on the formation of these completely useless shoots, naturally, to the detriment of the quality and quantity of the crop).

When pinching, it is worth paying attention to one important point - did the plants have sufficient feeding area? If by this time half of the leaves have already turned yellow and fell off, it means that the plants were too close to each other and next year this should be taken into account, because early leaf fall leads to a serious shortage of harvest. Although this may be due to a lack of nutrients, which is often observed in our humus-poor soils.

Simultaneously with the pinching, you need to look at all the cobs on the stem. Quite often, in the lower part of it, they are very loose and in appearance resemble a half-opened rosebud. Such cocks must be removed, since they will not become full-fledged, and the plant will spend time and energy not on the formation of the crop, but on the growth of completely useless bunches of leaves.

Clean up, but selectively. Cocks form at the end of summer. They are harvested selectively, as they ripen, first breaking out the lower, larger ones, then the middle ones, etc. It is not difficult to determine that the coots are ready for harvesting - they become quite dense and closed, reach their maximum size and acquire a special shine, and the leaves near the coots begin to turn yellow. You should know that cats that do not have a leaf feeding them will no longer grow up, and therefore they need to be removed unambiguously.

Earlier time to harvest Brussels sprouts should not be, since most of the harvest may be lost, because the coots can grow to stable cold weather, but it is also impossible to be late in harvesting, since the severe frost, and not the usual night frosts, will lead to the complete inedibility of the coots. The chopped off stems, together with the cocks, are placed in slightly opened plastic bags and stored in a cellar at a temperature of + 1 ° C for about two months.

Read the next part. Cabbage "Brussels style" →